Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs
This article is about the character from the television series. For the movie rendition, see Ricardo Tubbs. Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs (played by Philip Michael Thomas, b. 1949) is a Detective Sergeant of the Metro-Dade Police Department and an undercover detective in the Organized Crime Bureau, Vice Division. Tubbs is a former NYPD Armed Robbery Detective who maintains contacts in the "big bad Bronx". His thoroughness in investigating players in cases (and in some cases friends) and an ability to take emotion out of the facts compliments him with his partner, Sonny Crockett. Life before Vice Tubbs' brother, Rafael, was an NYPD Vice Detective for many years, and inspired his younger brother to become a cop. Tubbs joined the NYPD as a street cop, then as a detective in Armed Robbery, where he worked with a detective named Valerie Gordon, with whom he had a relationship that ended under bad circumstances. Tubbs also knew Clarence Batisse, who was his partner until a shooting incident forced Tubbs to testify against Clarence and Batisse was dismissed from the force, something Batisse held a grudge against Tubbs for years until Tubbs read a previously classified IAD report and found evidence to exonerate his former partner. Joining Vice Tubbs' brother Rafael was murdered by a drug dealer named Calderone, and Tubbs swore to avenge his brother's death. He found Calderone moved to Miami, so Tubbs forged inter-agency memos and priority clearance documents (and assumed his brother's name) to allow him to go down after him. During this time he encountered Sonny Crockett, a Miami-Dade Vice detective who, as it turned out, was pursuing the same figure known only to Crockett as "the Colombian". The two cops agreed to a "temporary working relationship" (that lasted five years), and together they busted Calderone, but the Colombian used his dirty money to bribe a judge into releasing him. Tubbs agreed to remain in Miami as Crockett's partner (to prevent NYPD from "frying him for misconduct"). Career In Vice Tubbs rapidly advanced to wear the gold sergeant's shield, as did Crockett. He had a weakness for downtrodden youth, because of his experiences in New York with "uptown junkies" (wealthy addicts who only did it for kicks) and dead-end kids (which brought him to try to help Jackie McSeidan, nearly leading to his demise). His cover name started out as "Richard Taylor", then changed to "Rico Taylor" and finally "Rico Cooper", Burnett's partner. He is a thorough investigator, even doing makes on friends of his colleagues (such as Mike Orgel, Robbie Cann, Lou Rodriguez, and others) because he "likes to know who he's working with", which helps turn the tide on many cases. His temper sometimes gets the best of him, especially when he's close to a case (such as Valerie Gordon's sister's murder), but that temper helped root out a leak in the department. He takes risks when necessary, such as going into The Maze, going with Crockett to Cartagena on a smuggling trip, going into prison as an inmate, etc. to solve cases and end drug running. Tubbs' NYPD background sometimes comes into conflict with the more laid-back Miami police style, but they compliment each other. Tubbs always dressed in suit and tie for most cases, sharply contrasting Crockett's more casual dress. His cool demeanor helped him avoid the burnout feeling that hit Crockett later in their five year run, but the frustration on how he & Crockett were treated by the government and the fact the Miami police didn't back them up led Tubbs to quit the force and go back to New York. Personal Life Tubbs is a ladies man, as evidenced by his many relationships with women, but he was never married. He had an on-again, off-again fling with his NYPD colleague Valerie Gordon, when she visited Miami on two occasions and he visited New York on two others they got together, to the point of almost proposing marriage but decided not to after she deceived him on a case she was involved in. Tubbs moved on to a tryst with his enemy Calderone's daughter, Angelina, who he met in the Bahamas. Despite that turn of events, he had real feelings for her, which came out when he found out he had a son (also named Ricardo) with Angelina. The Calderone family took their son away, and when Angelina died Tubbs assumed his namesake died with her, but he never found out his son survived. Tubbs then had flings with Vanessa, who murdered an accountant to cover up a secret bank account, then Laura, who was killed by a stray bullet during a bust (prompting him to volunteer himself to stop a drug operation inside state prison), Alicia, who accompanied him to an island "vacation" (actually a Calderone trap) and was shot but survived, then he was with the wife of a drug lord, Maria Pendroza, until it was discovered she was a member of a ruthless gang, the Escorpionistas. Unlike Crockett, Rico is wounded several times in the line of duty. He is shot by a Calderone henchman in the pilot episode and is injected with a powerful toxin in "Tale of the Goat" that almost leaves him with permanent brain damage. He is badly beaten while undercover as a prisoner in "Walk-Alone", before being shot again in the episode "Viking Bikers From Hell" but his body armor saves his life. He is shot once more by Sonny Burnett in "Mirror Image", but again his body armour saves him, and also takes a hit in the shoulder when confronting General Borbon and his government minders in "Freefall". Also unlike Crockett, Tubbs suffered a great amount of personal tragedy during the series. As aforementioned, his brother was killed in the line of duty. As also previously mentioned several of Tubbs' girlfriends were either murdered or touched by murder in some way. Also, the fate of Tubbs' son was never revealed; it is unknown if this was done on purpose or whether his survival was simply overlooked by the production team. Tubbs' mentality is very different from that of Crockett's as he is much more laid back and easy-going, whereas Crockett often gets aggravated by day to day activities. Cars Tubbs' street car was a blue 1964 Cadillac Coupe de Ville convertible that he appeared to own personally. However, more often than not, he travelled as a passenger in one of Crockett's Ferraris, owing to the fact such cars were more befitting of their undercover personalities. Weapons Tubbs' primary sidearm throughout the show was a Smith & Wesson Model 38 "Bodyguard" with a 3 inch barrel and custom Pachmyr grip, chambered in .38 Special. He also often carried a compact shotgun with him, originally simply a sawed-off side-by-side double barrelled shotgun in Season 1, but later replaced with a more suitable Ithaca 37 Stakeout that had been customised with a shortened barrel and forward pistol grip from Season 2 onwards. Both shotguns were chambered in 12 Gauge. Like Crockett and the other Vice officers, Tubbs brought in heavy firepower when it was warranted. He can occasionally be seen using assault rifles, such as an M16A1 in the episode "Out Where the Buses Don't Run" and a Colt Model 733 in "Baby Blues", and is also seen with a SIG Sauer P226 semi-automatic pistol in the series finale, "Freefall". Tubbs' customised Ithaca 37 Stakeout shotgun appears as the "Stubby Shotgun" in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, which was heavily inspired by Miami Vice and can be seen as an homage to the show. Category:Miami Vice Characters